Pass the pennies - Lean game simulation

Description

This is another game that I have had great fun playing and also thought me an my clients a great deal. I use it as staple for all my intros to Lean and agile.

The goal of the game is to move 20 coins through a series of process step (aka players). Each player flips the coins once before it can be passed over.

The game shows very effectively how limiting the work in process (WIP) increases the throughput and improves lead times, both for the first coin and the total time for all 20 coins.

If you move through the game slides quickly a nice little animation effect takes place. Watching that actually gave me a new understanding of what Flow means. Compare the first and last iterations and see the coins flow through the process, each step creating value.

If you like this presentation you will find more like this in Kanban In Action (http://bit.ly/theKanbanBook) where we have dedicated a whole chapter on agile games.

Pass the pennies A simulation of a simulation showing How to achive more, by doing less Marcus Hammarberg @marcusoftnet, The Salvation Army Indonesia

What is needed • 4 players • (4 supervisors, can be done by the players, must have clocks) • 20 coins • A table & 4 chairs • A whiteboard or flipchart to note results on (and a pen)

How to run • The goal is to move all the coins through all the players (the whole process) • Each player does his work by flipping each coin over • We time • The time each player works • Start when flipping the first coin • Stop after flipping the last coin • The time it takes for the first coin to come out of the process • The total time it takes for all the coins to goes through the process

Our players, in the simulation • I’ve introduced some variations to keep it interesting • Beth will use one hand and make no mistakes • Cesar will use one hand and drop 1 coin per iteration • Daphne will use two hands and make no mistakes • Adam will use one hand and make no mistakes

Take aways • Overall time goes down by doing fewer things at the same time • Time to first goes WAY down • (When played with humans individual times goes up) • In first round there was a lot of waiting • Every person waited ¾ of the total time • In last round everyone was working all the time • Every person was waiting 3-5 seconds

Pass the Pennies on Limited WIP Board CGN - trello.com

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